Page 6 of Blood & Roses

“I need you to kill a queen.”

Chapter 3

If the huntsman expected me to balk or express surprise at his offer, he was about to be sorely disappointed.

“You want to kill a queen?” I asked with a sigh, gesturing to the wooden chairs by the kitchen hearth and sitting in one of them. “The queen of Elandor?”

The only reason I knew anything about Queen Amira of Elandor was the recent scandal that hit thenewspapers.

She had been the late-queen’s lady-in-waiting until her death, and had only recently married the king. A king who had been brutally murdered just weeks ago, along with his only son and heir. The High King’s guards were searching furiously for the murderer, and the offer of a reward for information had reached as far as Mysthaven. Illustrations of the royal family had been in every news sheet for a week, along with speculation about who would take the throne.

The queen was acting as regent, and that’s when I lost interest and stopped reading.

Captain Everhart had vaguely suggested we might be responsible for the murders, as well as a plague of thorns encircling the High King’s palace at Varenheim, which we had heard nothing about prior to the Captain’s insistence that we must be at fault. But we rarely worked in Elandor, or any of the Elflands, our jobs keeping us in the mixed elven-human border towns between the Elven kingdoms in the Elflands and the human kingdom of Stalheim to the southeast.

“Why do you want the queen dead?” I asked, frowning at Rowan as I tried to puzzle out his motives. He must be connected to the royal family or nobility in some way to have such an entanglement with the queen, but he didn’t look highborn, nor did he look like a royal soldier. Then again, I was an assassin with a floral apron, so I knew looks could be deceiving. “And how will thissave your brother?”

“It’s a very long story,” Rowan sighed, his expression suddenly tired. “And one I can’t fully reveal without endangering my brother or myself.”

“Your secrets would be safe as my client,” I pointed out. “Assassin-client privilege.IfI take the job, of course.”

“No secret is ever truly safe as long as it’s shared,” Rowan said darkly.

I pursed my lips, feeling frustrated. It was like he didn’t actually want my help at all. “Okay, look. I get it. You have secrets. We all do. But I needsomeinformation before I agree to anything.”

Rowan studied me, as if sizing me up and trying to determine how serious I was. “I will answer one question,” he said finally. “Make it a good one.”

“I don’t need your coin or your job, Mr. Ravenswood,” I reminded him, standing and moving to the sink to fill the kettle for tea. “Youneedme.”

“Rowan,” Rowan repeated, giving me a dark-eyed glare that I caught from the corner of my eye. “And I’ll answer moreifyou take the job.”

“Fine,” I sighed, placing the kettle over the fire to boil and pulling mismatched teacups from the cabinet. “What does this have to do with the stag?”

“Pick a different question,” Rowan growled, clearly expecting me to ask something else. He leaned against the opposite wall looking thunderous.

“Let me guess,” I began, trying to channel Mora’s insight into people. “Something about the stag felt off. You fought him, but you didn’t kill him. In fact, you let him injure you quite badly. And while it could be the distance to travel here making you look so careworn, I’m guessing you’ve been following him for quite some time, since you were on hand when he attacked and you claimed it was your fault he targeted me.”

He raised a brow, looking both perturbed and mildly impressed at my guesswork.

“Another Elandorean half-elf?” I asked, trying to read his expression. He hadn’t felt right as a stag, so he must be an elf, and, based on his behavior, he wasn’t doing well. “I’m guessing the stagisyour brother?”

Rowan blinked in surprise. “Half-brother,” he confirmed. “And he’s full Elandorean. You’re annoyingly perceptive.”

“Assassin,” I reminded him with a smirk as I poured the tea and pushed a mug into his hands as I sat across from him once more. “It’s in the job description. So something’s preventing him from shifting? Some magic or curse?”

“I’m not sure exactly,” he replied, giving the tea a wary glance. I rolled my eyes, sipping to show it wasn’t poisoned. He nodded and sipped as well. “But I know it’s the queen’s doing.”

“You think Queen Amira cursed him,” I repeated, trying to understand the logic. “And killing her will lift it? Why would she do that? Who is your brother to her?”

“Don’t take this the wrong way,” Rowan said, blowing on the steaming tea and taking another sip. “But I feel like assassin-client privilege doesn’t count if we don’t have some kind of binding agreement in place. I’m not telling you anything more until you agree to the job.”

I sighed, contemplating Rowan’s story. My guess was that his brother was involved in the royal murders. Why else would the queen be interested in hunting him down?

It also made sense that Rowan was going to such lengths to protect him. If his brotherhadmurdered the king and prince, then his punishment would be death.

But why would the queen curse him if sheknewhe was responsible? Why not just turn him over to Captain Everhart?

Unless…but no. The prince was both an only child and certainly dead. They had a body.